


I'll Just be a Hero Out of Spite

by enigmew



Category: Wandersong (Video Game)
Genre: jailbreak dlc lads pensive emoji
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 17:34:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18393113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enigmew/pseuds/enigmew
Summary: When her bard companion ended up getting them both locked away for disrespecting and threatening the King of Rulle, Miriam takes it upon herself to make sure they escape, taking the Song of the Sun Overseer with them.





	I'll Just be a Hero Out of Spite

**Author's Note:**

> The summary gets the main idea across, but this is basically between the events between Kiwi singing the ghost song to the king and ending up on Miriam's broom in Act Five!
> 
> The bard is named Kiwi (they/them) but this focuses on Miriam, whoops.

The bard collapsed on the ground with a terrible thud that made their witch companion wince in reaction.

 

“Well, _that_ was uncalled for,” the King grunted as soldiers shuffled in the throne room, in similar attire to the soldiers on the Xiatian streets. Mariam noticed that his lion beside him had finally become alert to the visitors, leaning up into a squat with a low growl. Miriam scoffed. To her, it just looked upset that its nap was disturbed by Kiwi’s song.

 

With the sound of a sword being brandished, Audrey Redheart turned towards the king with her blade angled to the heavens, letting its mystical energies charge. “Your majesty, I can handle these two for you,” she announced loudly for the guards to hear. “Afterall, what are they compared to the Hero?”

 

“You act like you didn’t invite us in yourself,” Mariam shouted, as she flinched away from the approaching guards and the snapping jaws of their aggravated qin. She glanced around and noticed another group of guards scrambling to pick up Kiwi. Obviously, they put up no fight, but the same couldn’t be saved for the witch while she summoned energy in her fists and she stared down the guards approaching her.

 

The Hero chuckled, not putting down her sword. “You were never a threat! Obviously you’re more of a danger to yourselves than you could be to the King. _Especially_ while I’m around!” Her expression made Mariam want to blast her where she stood, if only if all the guards weren’t in her way.

 

 _But…_ her eyes flicked to Kiwi’s reactionless form, _It’s not like they’re stopping me…._

 

Before she even finished her second thought, she gestured with a pointed finger towards the Hero. Mariam’s small smirk turned into a grin when Audrey had stumbled for a moment and nearly fallen backwards when a blast of magic erupted the ground beneath her. She disregarded the guards scattering away from her blast, readying herself for another attack on the hero.

 

The king jumped and shielded himself with his arms from Miriam with a “yeep!” Her usual frown returned when she realized he thought she was aiming at him. _As if he’s soooo important he thinks he should be worried…_ She may have briefly forgotten the fact that his kingdom was in the middle of a war, but she was suddenly pent up on her nerves that she was probably _willing_ to commit a war crime at this point! What’s another felony on her Rulle record?

 

The head guard shouted something that Miriam unabashedly ignored so she could summon her broom and try to put distance between her and the guards. Audrey regained her balance and threw her sword in the air, dashing towards the swarm of guards surrounding her targets.

 

“KIWI,” Mariam called, expecting this to escalate into a worse fight than their previous on in the Orderscape. She could either stay here and _finally_ kick that smug expression off Audrey’s face, or she could escape the guards and get out of this sundried kingdom. The latter sounded good.

 

Though, the bard didn’t respond. As she boosted herself into the air, she hesitated to make sure Kiwi saw her, but upon seeing how they were _really_ out for the count because that ghost song, she stumbled.

 

What felt like _had_ to be fifty bird qin charged at her, taking full advantage of her moment of staggering. Mariam cursed and fell backwards, losing control over her broom as she wildly pushed away the birds.

 

Before she knew it, she was succumbing to gravity and the bruises and bites of those antagonizing fowls. She panicked and kicked her broom out of reach in midair, falling on her back right where a Rulle guard subdued Mariam’s arms before she could lash out again with another explosive spell.

 

From Mariam’s view, she had fallen _just_ out of the way before a shock of magical lightning burst where she had been flying. As she was being forced back up to her feet, Miriam saw the fiery eyes of Audrey and her sword pointed directly at her.

 

The king cleared his throat and gestured frantically as Audrey directed her attention back to him. She tried to relax her battle-ready posture and riled-up expression, supposedly to present herself more noble than she looked moments ago. Mariam had to fight to roll her eyes.

 

“Miss Hero, we all sincerely appreciate everything you’ve done for us,” he said with much more of an urgency, gesturing with an entire arm while the other folded protectively over himself. “But we can handle these _Chandeesh spies_ from here,” he sneered, glaring specifically at Miriam. When Miriam glared back, he recoiled and glanced away. “... We can’t really afford fixing collateral damage right now.”

 

Miriam rose a bit, feeling smug for staring down a king, before her smirk was practically knocked off her face as the guard holding her had forced Miriam’s wrists between her shoulder blades.

 

Audrey panted a laugh, shrugging away from Miriam and Kiwi with that confident grin and heroic pose. “Just say the word, your majesty,” she said in that _tone_ , announcing to the entire room instead of talking like a normal person, “I could easily take care of these spies for you. But if you insist! The whole war thing going on certainly seems to be a lot on your minds, I wouldn’t wanna leave you with a couple more things to worry about!”

 

Miriam’s irritation bubbled into a rage again. She growled, thrashing her shoulders and trying to shove the guards away. They easily outnumbered and overpowered her and trying to disperse magic again would only worsen her situation.

 

 _We’re the ones trying to_ save _your ungrateful, animal-loving－ Audrey acting like she’s not responsible for letting us in here－ NOW you’re worried about the war－!!!_ “ _AAAARGGH_ , what do you think you’ll even do with us, huh? Trap us in a stupid little petting zoo? Force us to do community service watering your STUPID garden?”

 

The king’s head guard glared at them down his nose, as if he CERTAINLY wasn’t running in circles calling for help moments before, and plainly announced, “Send them to the dungeons.” He turned to the king and bowed apologetically, descending into a much more pathetic and groveling voice, “I knew it was a bad idea, my regards to Miss Redheart, but I _knew_ those two were no good the moment I laid my eyes on them. I should have told the guards to throw them back to their own _creatures_ beyond the walls the moment I laid eyes on them!”

 

Before Miriam could even retort, she and Kiwi were being ushered out of the room, Mariam’s attempts to fight them went barely noticed, aside from her loud and ill tempered curses toward them. The king dropped back down on his throne, slumping down and rubbing his temples. His lion settled down, shaking its bristled fur and loudly flopping back down on his space beside the throne. _Watching_ everything go down certainly took it out of him. “Whatever… just get them out of my sight, this is just so stressful on top of _everything else_ going on this week, you know. Now we have two more prisoners… ugh….”

 

Mariam froze for a moment and finally put all her attention into stopping herself from being pushed into the next room. She cast her gaze over her shoulder and listened, just before they were pushed through the doors and she lost her chance to hear what the King had to help Audrey.

 

“Apologies for _that_ disturbance during our gracious thanks to you for saving our kingdom,” he sighed, making Mariam’s blood boil. “We’ll postpone it for a moment so we can set up some sort of, uhhhhh,” he gestured at his headguard, “feast?”

 

The throne room doors were slammed with a jarring force that made Mariam’s bones ache and teeth rattle. She directed her attention to Kiwi again, still as limp as they were when they fell down from their flashy ghost song in the first place.

 

“Kiwi!” she grunted through grit teeth, starting to shove at the guards again. “Kiwi, wake up.”

 

The bard didn’t react and the attempt only got her a soldier barking at her to “quiet down, _witch_.” Mariam set her jaw and glanced around at the castle hallways, trying to access some means of escape. Her hands were being painfully pressed high on her back, any attempt to blast out of the guards’ hold would only end up hurting her FAR more than a failed take-off on her broom or a couple wild animal bites ever could.

 

“What would your grandma say?” Miriam quietly mimicked the bard under her breath. She bit back a spiteful laugh. _Grandma Sapphy would certainly hate to see me getting tossed into some dirty dog jail. And Kiwi was oh so concerned about stealing a plant!_

 

After a few moments of struggling, Mariam finally recognized that even if she broke away from the guards, the entire castle’s security would be on high alert. And besides the entrance they came through, she didn’t know any other way out of the palace. She did not want to cross paths with Audrey again.

 

Miriam took the time on her aggravating walk of compliance trying to observe for some way to get out if she could miraculously escape the guards. When she looked around, she realized just how much of this palace had such brightly lit decor and color. Everything was so bright and warm. The torches along the walls, flickering like the sun casting mirages down the desert outside the city, certainly didn’t help the strain on Mariam’s eyes. On long, draping tapestries, Miriam recognized the symbol of the Sun Overseer.

 

At times, they passed pillars, supporting palace with its high ceilings supporting the rest of the building. Miriam couldn’t tell if it was because her vision was blurred from the ruckus or if the pillars were actually gold, reflecting what was left of the sunlight that was just starting to become out of view from the windows. _It’s probably plated_ , she thought, furrowing her brow. Something even more cynical in her mind mentioned, _It’s probably just painted_.

 

Regardless of her ill feelings towards the Lumber Town they had passed through on their way to Xiatian, something felt so _wrong_ to her that the king of Rulle had all these soldiers and all these riches and he couldn’t even acknowledge those pitiful townies sitting in the midst of all the monsters.

 

 _The monsters they thought_ I _had something to do with._ She looked down and frowned. Maybe Kiwi’s nonsensical empathy had taken an effect on Miriam, but the day Miriam stopped being spiteful of humanity would be the day the sun stopped shining. Maybe she would have even said something if it didn’t seem like everyone had a target on her back just because of her magic! She rolled her eyes at herself, fully aware she had practically forgotten about their request of help until now.

 

They descended deeper into the palace, as the walls narrowed and ceiling grew lower. The more they walked on, a strange feeling of dread set in. _Being out in the sun is taking its number on me… It would be nicer for EVERYONE to get a_ decent _source of light down here…._ The walls were now windowless as the hall descended into a slope and the torches were starting to go out in the less busy reaches of the palace.

 

As she observed her surroundings, she noticed how the yellow hues on the walls started fading. Tan stone brick shapes were making up a majority of the walls, with a few patches of a similarly yellow color. _Well, of course. If no one’s coming down the visit the cat kickers, why bother maintaining any of this?_

 

The idea that the King had just _stopped_ caring about the palace walls just because no one saw any use in it just summoned a loop of irritable thoughts and reminders that swelled up with every small detail she noticed.

 

 _Rulle is such a terrible backwards kingdom. They all act like they’re so wholesome and wonderful! Just because they value teamwork and cooperation with nature! They get sad when their forests are eaten up and have a garden for the wonderful citizens outside the palace!_ Miriam rolled her eyes and breathed a loud, annoyed breath, catching the attention of a few skittish guards.

 

Miriam sympathetically glanced over at Kiwi, a single guard easily carrying them with their qin. Maybe it was better that they were unconscious. Empathy sure gets tiring after all the thinking that was involved. And this failure of a visit to the King seemed to leave Mariam doing a lot of that. _Caring about people who only want bad things to happen to us…_ She felt that nagging voice in the back of her mind again. The part of her that kept wondering, _Is this world even still worth saving?_

 

Miriam snapped out of her thoughts with a start when dangerously loud doors began creaking open. At this point, Miriam realized, it was too dim to see the far corners of the hall, and the gentle flickering of torches a decent distance away left an ominous flickering on the heavy doors. There was a sudden raise of panic in Miriam’s mind, but she kept her face away from the guards and refused to let her anxiety show.

 

She silently tried to assure herself, _What could a rinky dink dungeon really have against real magic?_

 

The dank smell of the dungeons blew through the doors in a disgusting wave. It reminded her of the cave between Grandma Sapphy’s house and Delphi. The occasional drip in the background made her assume there was some sort of water damage, and probably mildew. She shuttered. She was fully aware of nasty bacteria and fungus since she knew how to work with them magically thanks to Sapphy (most often, how to get rid of it), but she didn’t have to _like_ the idea that she was essentially being thrown in an unkept cavern they just decided to keep under the palace and added bars so they could throw in the unruly.

 

 _This is once again my thanks for trying to save the world_ , she thought, sizing up the crude bars they had set up as doors for the rocky cells they set up upon entering. There was a small, crackling fire that hurt Mariam’s eyes as the sudden light suddenly flicked in her view. A few guards looked up, who jerked as if they had been sleeping before their group showed up. Miriam scoffed at them. _I was getting nervous over nothing. Getting out of this disgusting place should be simple… I hope._

 

The guards stood, picking up jangling keys while the qin next to their seats watched with reflective eyes. Miriam watched them back, unsettled and unsure if their eyes were furrowed with a calculating maliciousness or if they were simply dozing off as the sun dipped beneath the sky. She noticed the sky turning dark through the slitted windows on either side of where their fireplace’s chimney would be. The sun was practically beneath the horizon at this point. A few twinkling stars were appearing from the small wall slits she could see.

 

She breathed a sigh of relief. _Just have to get a second alone… I’ll be up there in no time._

 

She was ready to walk through her new plan in her head when she was essentially shoved into a musky cell and kicked up a decent layer of dust and dirt. She coughed as she pushed herself up with a frustrated growl.

 

“ _JEEZ_ , could you have thrown your stupid cats on me too?” She turned to watch the guards swiftly lock the door behind her, looking humorously intimidating as they watched her with wide eyes through the bars.

 

In a huff, she scrambled to her feet and stomped at them, then circling around to look at her cell. She heard the guards shuffle back and heard one of them say in a low voice, “Keep a couple of your qin on this one. She almost went for the Hero AND King’s _life_.”

 

There was a bit of chatter as the remaining guards began to gossip. Mariam frowned over her shoulder and she noticed a couple of the evil-eyed animals who had taken their place in front of her cell. She flinched when she noticed all of them, some laying unimpressed on the prison floor. She didn’t feel like counting all of them. She was okay being ignorant to the number of ominous glowing eyes on the opposite sides of those bars.

 

Miriam turned and took the second to stretch and enjoy the mobility over her limbs again. She found the simple wooden bed in one corner of the room and promptly sat down on it with crossed legs. She glanced around at the rest of the room, taking note of the hay distributed on one side of the room ( _For some Rulle citizen’s qin to lie in all comfortably, how nice of them_ , Miriam bitterly imagined) and the grated windows on the opposite side of the walls. There was an ominous grid of light on the cell’s floor from the moonlight, but Miriam slowly got up and went to look through the bars at the purple sky.

 

She avoided touching the rusty bars, the smell of damp bricks overpowering the fragrant gardens outside and made Miriam’s stomach feel ill. She felt chills go down her spine as she listened to the distant sound of water dripping somewhere. The badly kept room didn’t help her mood at all.

 

She backed away from the wall and rubbed her hands together, scanning the wall up and down for a weak spot that she could quickly blast her way out of.  When she saw a crumbling corner of the grated window, she held up her hands as a quiet hum of energy was summoned in her palms.

 

A sharp _YIP_ startled her out of it, causing a ricocheted _zap_ disappear into the stone brick walls. She spun around with a defensive expression on her face as her eyes met a fox qin with wicked looking antlers casting a shadow on the ground behind it. Its teeth were bared and the qin around it were starting to look through the bars at Miriam as well. Miriam couldn’t help but flinch especially when she saw the elongated necks of bird qins peering in with their pointed faces.

 

She kicked dirt and hay at them. “Shut up, you stupid mutts….” The qins ruffled their fur and feathers and a few turned their heads to their guard companions. She approached the bars and covered her fist with her sleeve and hit the bars with the side of her hand. “Get out of here,” she muttered aggressively. She knew she wouldn’t actually try hurting one of them unless they attacked her, but she also wasn’t averse to trying to intimidate a couple of animals that couldn’t understand her.

 

 _Maybe frazzled animals are just supposed to give an intimidating impression._ She glanced up at the guards who were hardly paying attention to her anymore, despite a couple nervous looks she got whenever the animals barked a noise of displeasure. _The guards certainly aren’t doing that for me,_ she added with crossed arms.

 

With a sudden start, her eyes caught on a broom on the far side of room next to the guards. She quickly pat her sides looking for her broom and she put a hand on her forehead when she realized she had dropped it earlier. She punched the bars again with her sleeve covered fist and alerted the guards’ attention.

 

A couple of them barked a laugh and a few quietly snickered as if they thought she had legitimately been trying to escape that way. She only heard a few snippets of their conversation before she went to think again: “Here we’re thinking witches are master plotters, huh?” “Don’t know why I was so nervous when she was coming in.” “Y’think the witches were planning their own attack with the likes of her?”

 

Miriam paced around the cell with her arms gripping either side of her shoulders, scratching them in a frustrated nervous tick. Suddenly the plan she _hoped_ she could go for, which was the blast out of this prison immediately and fly with her broom on over to the King before he sang the Overseer song was dashed. She kicked through loose hay and sneezed when the earthy smells settled and that only made her more angry.

 

In an exasperated huff, Miriam sat herself down on the cell bed. Unlike she expected, the bed was quite pleasant, unlike the stereotypical metal sheet prison bed she imagined. This dungeon actually had a nicely made wooden frame with thoughtfully crafted quilts. Without trying to seem grateful, she laid down, curling up and facing the wall, trying to think.

 

Well, that was only partially true. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was _exhausted_. Walking through Rulle and running around Xiatian just to get the Hero to let them see the king… and the smell of the potion faintly lingered on her dress. She smirked to herself, trying to imagine all the ways it could disabilitate the Hero on her journey. She couldn’t help but try wiping the smell off of her hands onto her leggings, though. The image in her mind of the dead frog and the (most likely) poisonous mushrooms didn’t help her upset stomach in the filthy cell.

 

 _If only everything wasn’t happening so_ quickly _,_ Miriam complained. This was supposed to be _her_ quest. Her and Grandma Sapphy’s. She was going to save the world the moment that Sapphy’s predictions had started whispering the times of the end. Mariam had lived happily with her grandmother for _years_ and she was not going to let some sort of stupid, natural order of things let her cut her time short on this earth.

 

But ever since that trip to Langtree to try and get into the Dreamscape…. She turned her head into the prison bed’s pillow. She couldn’t help but feel upset that Kiwi was taking so much of this journey  from her. She couldn’t help but feel like she had to prove to Sapphy that she could do it on her own. But ever since that happy little bard showed up talking to ghosts, dancing at villagers, and beaming at _everything_ , they just kept doing everything Miriam was supposed to do. It felt like she wasn’t even necessary for her to be there aside from being a ride from one nexus point location to the next.

 

She flinched and quickly turned around, casting her wide eyes gaze over the cell. She felt a stab of guilt when she realized that Kiwi wasn’t with her. She got up in a silent panic as she moved towards the bars again and disregarded her previous fear of germs to try looking at the cells beside her own. She furrowed her brows and turned towards the guards in the opposite direction and opened her mouth to demand to see her companion.

 

She nearly choked on her words when her ear caught a quiet noise.

 

A gentle musical murmuring was echoing from her left. The guards on her right, in the corner, didn’t seem to notice the bard’s sleep-singing. She wanted to laugh. Even if she couldn’t see them, she could imagine that bubbly bard all curled up comfortable in the wooden prison bed, singing whatever melodies that came to mind in their dreams. For a moment she forgot she was mad at them.

 

In that same moment she forgot about all the qin who were meant to be watching her carefully. When she remembered them she flinched away from the bars, expecting the qin’s snapping jaws to greet her moment of levity. She looked around for flashing teeth and exhaled in relief when she noticed the piles of fur or feathers curled up at the foot of the bars. Their gently rising backs and the sound of snoring indicated to Mariam that they were no longer a threat at this point.

 

Miriam looked up at the guards again and noticed that their chatter had quieted down. A few soft voices seemed to be coming from the group, compensating for their friends who had started falling asleep again or for the night. Miriam eyed her broom leaned up next to a couple of spears and swords, looking quite out of place with the weapons. Obviously they knew it was important. It was _witchy_ so they had to keep it away from the witch! Miriam chuckled softly to herself, a smirk growing on her face again. Obviously these soldiers didn’t know much about witches at all.

 

With a flick of her wrist, Miriam tested something. In the same motion of her hand, the broom fell over on the other side of the room. The half-awake guards and qin jumped a foot in the air as they looked at the noise. They sighed, one of them moving to pick it back up and Miriam nodded confidently to herself.

 

When the guard leaned it back in place and went to rejoin her friends, Miriam gestured again, more slowly this time, as the broom slowly nodded over and she carefully maneuvered it to fall down more gradually and quietly. She held her breath until it had tapped the floor in time with a fire crackle, and relaxed when none of the guards paid any mind, their backs turned to it.

 

 _Moving a broom is so much more of a chore than summoning one_ … she thought with grit teeth as she gestured hastily as the broom pathetically scoot towards her cell as if it were being dragged every so often with a thread. It didn’t help that she froze every other second to look over at the guards and how the qin kept looking at her, waving her hands wildly.

 

Each time she defensively put her hands up, and the broom clattered just enough that it made Miriam’s heart sink, but none of the guards seemed to have heard.

 

After what felt like an eternity, her broom was almost within reaching distance. The qin around her were all settled and sleeping and seemed to disregard the delusional witch sitting leaned up against the bars with wild hand signals. Miriam scooted her own self over to the other wall of the cell, sticking her arms through the bars and trying to avoid bumping any of the animals with her elbows. Hesitantly, Miriam let her cheeks brush the bars just to get a better chance to get her broom. The metal made her stomach sink and she couldn’t help but gag a little when she felt it.

 

With a few more gestures and terrible cramps in her arms, Miriam finally felt the smooth wood brush her fingers. She had to contain a gasp of excitement and she side eyed the location of the guards before she started sliding the broom with her fingertips and finally got a hold of it with her entire hand. She shook the bars of her cage excitedly with one hand as she pulled it closer. Never had she been happier to see her broom than in this moment.

 

She froze abruptly when she felt something scaley brush across her hand.

 

A headache threatened its way into her skull with how tightly she was clenching her jaw out of all these nerves, but when she felt the warmth of a bird’s leg on the back of her hand she thought she had chipped something.

 

With a noise that seemed almost deafening to Mariam, the bird shook its head vigorously. Miriam recoiled and shut her eyes tight, keeping hold on her broomstick despite her rush of panic. She held in a deep breath to brace herself for the pointed talons and beak to rain down on her….

 

A few heartbeats passed and Miriam felt nothing, no scratches to add to her collection or pecks to threaten her eyes. She opened one eye cautiously and angled her head upward. With a new rush of embarrassment, she realized that the bird was curled up in its own wings, comfortably dozing off as it adjusted on its legs.

 

Miriam let herself regain her air and she finally stopped clenching her teeth, slipping the broomstick through the rest of the bars.

 

She loosened her grip as she took the broomstick in her hands and admired it. With a crackle of bluish energy, magic flickered up and down the chipping, painted wood as Miriam silently prided her handiwork.

 

 _Pretty crafty… dare I say heroic of me?_ She couldn’t help a grin melt on her face and her shoulders bounced in a soundless snicker to herself. Using her broomstick, she heaved herself up off the ground, dusting the dirt and hay debris off her dress.

 

As she glanced back down at her hands, pride subsiding a bit, she was starkly reminded of her reality. While her shoulders and arms were sore and had started cramping up, the “ _real_ ” Hero was probably kicking her feet up and feasting like the king himself, hardly paying any mind to the ones she threw in jail.

 

A flicker of lights lit up across the broomstick again, she turned around with a twirl of her cape to scan the windowed wall for anywhere the wall looked weakest. _As much fun as_ destroying _this whole place would be, dying in a cave in would be much less heroic than I’d like to admit._

 

Without hesitation, she raised a pointed finger dismissively to the right of the grated window and magic with the same jarring, coursing energy as lightning struck out from her arm. She stumbled, surprised at her own force and shook her hand to release the discharge.

 

Before she could feel flustered for her underestimation of her own magic, a thundering crumble of brick and stone avalanched before her. She covered her ears with her hands and turned away as a cloud of dust overwhelmed her and she worried she’d suffocate.

 

 _This was poorly thought through_ , she snapped at herself. _What if the_ entire _castle falls on me, what will I accomplish then? What if I die here and the guards and qin have a story to tell about the witch who died right here in these caverns-_

 

The dust cleared enough for her to hear rattling at the cell door and the shouting faces of the guards behind it. The animals were awake and snarling, pawing at the bars and crying incessantly. Miriam took her hands away from her face and she looked at them for a few heartbeats, giving herself a moment to acknowledge that she was still alive, they were still alive, and that she was breaking out of the royal dungeon.

 

She took a deep breath and exhaled. _Nice. I can work with outside-of-the-law hero stuff. I already have been._

 

Miriam turned back at the wall, realizing the grate had fallen and the stunning night sky was before her.

 

She nodded to herself.

 

And she took a running start before leaping through the gaping dungeon hole. She had positioned her broom smoothly underneath her so she didn’t have to waste time mounting it. Her peripheral vision was clouded with her adrenaline rush. There was nothing but her, the dust cloud, and her broom, and the wide open air beneath her.

 

She blinked a few times. Her breath returning to her. Her heart was pounding in her ears but she glanced to her right and left and realized she was out, hovering over the gardens draping the castle’s mountain like a dress.

 

She wrinkled her nose and punched the air with a jubilant snicker. She grinned and celebrated her freedom for a few moments until she turned to look up for the throne room windows she had seen not that long ago.

 

 _Get ready, you oh so wonderful Hero. You really thought a jail could hold me?_ She glared at the windows she couldn’t recognize with a confident smirk across her face, leaning forward for the broom to accelerate towards them.

 

Miriam realized she was panting from that rush. With a shrug to herself, she thought, _This isn’t even that hard. I can do this for another kingdom, I’m sure._ Her eyes flicked from window to window. _I just have to find the king now. Do whatever it takes to get the stupid song._

 

Miriam jerked, coming to a stop on her broom when she smacked her face with the palm of her head. She sat motionlessly on her broom when she realized she left Kiwi dead asleep in that jail.

 

She was surprised at how compelled she felt like returning to that miserable cavern for them.

 

 _Don’t forget that they stole this adventure from you in the first place. This was yours and Sapphy’s mission. They had_ nothing _to do with this. They’re as bad as Audrey, taking this away from me._

 

She felt magic flicker from her fists again as she looked down at her own white knuckles on the broomstick. She took a few breaths, her anger ceasing much quicker than she expected.

 

 _But they would come back for me._ She glanced over at the gaping hole of her prison cell, her mind registering that guards would be looking for her soon if she didn’t come to a decision quickly.

 

 _They wouldn’t leave me behind. They’ve only ever been in this for helping people… but more importantly they’ve already gotten me this far._ She brushed hair out of her face and rubbed her forehead in a frustrated fluster. _That bard’s stupid empathy… gonna get themself AND ME killed in the crossfire of all this caring._

 

Her logic piped in quite too proud of itself. _They_ do _also know the rest of the Earthsong to this point._

 

As dramatically as she could, she rolled her eyes, pointing herself back in the direction of the prison, those terrible, musky smells she wanted to gag at, and her only friend on this adventure.

 

 _I could come back for them later,_ she acknowledged, but her reasoning knew the prison would be on even higher alert if she came back later.

 

As she kicked herself forward in the direction of the prison she also acknowledged the fact that she was honestly a little worried for them. She sighed and furrowed her brows. _I also don’t want them to think I completely left them_ , she admitted to herself. She couldn’t help but imagine the bard waking up in that jail, the same menacing qin eyes of those they had been petting in town suddenly staring them down the way they did to her, completely alone. And Miriam left them….

 

She quickly shook her head, trying not to let her imagination get the best of her. She wasn’t going to leave them behind this time, even if she was going to risk her neck to do that.

 

With a swift motion, Miriam went right back to the hole in the castle, coming to a halt right before entering her damage again. She peered inside, straining her eyes and ears to see the guards or qin or hear their voices. When she couldn’t see anything but the flickering fire that they had left behind, Miriam reasoned that the guards were fully convinced she’d be making her escape.

 

The broomstick wavered unsettlingly as Miriam hopped off of it and landed right back in her prison cell. She tried holding her breath to avoid inhaling that terrible smell again. She glanced around uneasily as she quietly, but briskly, walked through the pebbles and over to the door.

 

She noticed the significant gap in the door from the rest of the bars. _They slammed it behind them_ , she figured. _Didn’t bother to lock up an empty cell._ She smirked again, pushing it open.

 

“Didn’t even have to blast my way to your rescue, Kiwi.”

 

Miriam glanced around the corner and glanced into the cell neighboring hers. Her heart dropped when she didn’t immediately spy the bard. She worried that with all her commotion, the guards may have dragged her companion somewhere even deeper in the palace.

 

Her ears told her otherwise, however. She heard the sleepy, musical murmurings of Kiwi’s sleepsinging and she looked at the bed again. Somehow, they had already tangled themself up in the sheets and made themself comfortable. Her worries with how they’d react to prison life quickly washed away.

 

Miriam tried the door, with her hand safely tucked in her sleeve, trying to move it gently, then forcefully. Miriam glanced at the bard again, due to the bars’ clattering, but they remained motionless. _’Least I don’t have to worry about you defending the guards for doing their job, huh?_

 

She looked down at the keyhole for the door and traced it with her fingers, turning and eyes scrutinizing the far walls for the key that fit it. She rushed back over in the guards’ area, glancing up and down the wall where the spears (and her broom) once were. The guards appeared to have left to look for their escaped prisoner.

 

There were shelves with keepsakes, a rack for tools to tend their fire, and a few benches for them to rest lined up around it.

 

On the wall opposite to it, the other side of the brick stone wall where she wouldn’t have seen from her view in the cell, she saw hangers where a few spare helmets and throw-over armour pieces were kept. On the very edge of it, she saw a ring with differently shaped keys strung around it.

 

Miriam grinned, approaching it and reaching out to grab it.

 

The sudden gasp behind her made her freeze where she stood.

 

She broke out of her surprise, when she saw a guard in the doorway she was ushered into when she was first thrown in here. The guard couldn’t have been much taller than her, but they seemed much more sound in their stance than Miriam, considering the layers of armor they must have had on.

 

“Don’t you dare take those,” the guard grunted in the most stern voice they could muster. Miriam noticed a dog-like creature curling around their legs, head lowered and a gentle growl coming from its throat.

 

Miriam’s hand was still outstretched toward the keys. Barely a moment passed until she took them from their hanger against the guard’s wishes. “I really hope that was all you’re were going to say,” she attempted, as she put the ring of keys around her wrist so she could take her broomstick in both hands.

 

The guard went silent for a few seconds, in the firelight Miriam thought she could see them red cheeked. “I really hoped that’s all I would have to do,” they responded, taking the spear in their hands and brandishing it. “ _GET IT_ ,” they called to their qin, who barked and dashed towards Miriam like a pet would chase a toy.

 

The witch flinched back and swung her broom defensively, a satisfying but nerve wracking impact came from the bristled end of the broom, where the brush hit the side of the qin’s face. Miriam widened her eyes as the poor thing rolled onto the floor, scratching the floor as it regained a hold to stand up.

 

“HEY, NOW!” the guard called, Miriam acknowledging her moment of an advantage and darting to get around the corner back to Kiwi’s cell. “Go on, get her!”

 

Miriam turned back and swung wildly with the broom again. She hadn’t even seen the qin when she started but when her eyes focused again she saw the fox recoiling from her attack. The guard started approaching her now, spear pointed dangerously in her direction.

 

“I’m _actually_ dealing with a lot of things right now, could you PLEASE leave me alone for this part,” Miriam growled to the guard, her voice coming off much louder than she anticipated with the echoing walls.

 

“Look, witch, so am I!” They took further advancing steps, their spear glistened in the exposed moonlight coming from her old cell. “Now I’ve got a job to do, and you’re either going to listen to me and do this the easy way, or I’ll be forced to - AHH EYA’S CHORDS.”

 

Miriam’s hand was pointed forward and open and she shook it after releasing a blast of magic where they stood. She wasn’t _aiming_ for them, she just wanted them to quiet down long enough for her to put in the key.

 

“STOP THAT, I SWEAR, WHEN THE OTHERS GET BACK-”

 

The clatter of keys turning and bars separating tuned Miriam out of that conversation. Miriam pushed her way into Kiwi’s cell and she slammed the door behind her.

 

“Alright, Kiwi, if I’ve done this much to come back for you…” She propped the broom up against the bedframe and grabbed the bard’s shoulders, shaking them aggressively. “NOT time for a nap, sleeping beauty!”

 

She almost felt bad, their head lolling to the side as they gently snored. Their expression hardly even changed and their face seemed completely at ease with the situation around them. She sighed, grabbing her broom again and hooked an arm under Kiwi’s to lift them up. She tried standing up, expecting the bard to be picked up easily, but she stumbled embarrassingly so over their weight, and she twisted to see if the guard had made it to the door.

 

The guard’s face appeared hardly a moment later, the dog close at their heel. They reached for the keys she had left in the door and Miriam took that as her que.

 

She gestured at the wall, a burst of energy exploding from her hand and the window grate of Kiwi’s cell rather cleanly threw itself down the cliffside, along with a few solid rocks and bricks caught on the impact.

 

The door began to creak and Miriam turned again, standing herself upright. She held up her broom again, smacking it aggressively on the bars where the guard’s face was. In a bit of a burst of temper, she shouted, “Ever heard about the _soul snatching witches_ down in the woods? Ever heard about those _REAL LEGENDS_ ? Grow up hearing about how _DANGEROUS_ us witches are?”

 

“You don’t scare me!” the guard barked back, despite flinching away from the bars. “Pfft, those stupid kids’ stories? Don’t joke with me, you Chandeesh-”

 

Miriam made a pose, broom still held up like a weapon, but her hand was glowing and flickering with its explosive energy again. She clenched it into a fist and a few sparks flickered and sizzled onto the ground. “Oh _noooo_ , they’re very real,” she threatened, rolling her eyes at herself. “Now you should count your blessings quick before I snatch up your soul, uhh, really fast.”

 

The guard opened their mouth to say something again, and Miriam pointed at the ground they stood on, exploding a bit of gravel and dirt. They shrieked and darted out of the way of her view, the dog following right behind them while barking out in alarm.

 

“Bought us time,” Miriam looking back at Kiwi. She took a breath and wrapped her arms around Kiwi, straightening herself up and heaving them out of the bed. Miriam angled her broom to support herself and the bard with it, propping them up with one arm and keeping them steady with the other.

 

Miriam couldn’t help but bark an exasperated, but frankly amused, laugh when she noticed Kiwi still clutching loosely onto the sheets from the bed. She glared at the bard and said, “You’re REALLY not doing me any favors, are you?”

 

They didn’t respond but Mariam stepped on the sheets to pull them from Kiwi’s hand. She lowered the broomstick further but kicked it up so it’d be hovering a decent foot off the ground, angling Kiwi carefully on the broom. Miriam nodded silently to herself when she felt confident they wouldn’t fall right off and she put herself on the broom, one hand forward to steer and the other to keep Kiwi from flipping right onto the ground.

 

Miriam swiveled around and tilted her head to look through the bars. She peered around the corner, keeping the door pressed closed. The far entrance door was swung wide open, the only trace that the guard had been there was the subtle swinging and creak of its hinges. _Now I’m probably going to have to deal with all of them on the way out_.

 

She twisted around and directed the two of them to the gaping hole in the wall where the grate used to be. She supported the bard behind her up as she kicked off and hurt her knees to get herself in the air. She kept herself elevated to compensate for her heavier load to the point that she had to duck to make her way out of the caverns. Miriam shuttered when she thought she heard a _thunk_ behind her.

 

As the broom lead them into the open air, Miriam turned to give Kiwi an apologetic look. The broom banked gently as she started coasting in the air to get a better look at the mountain side, and she propped Kiwi to lean on her back so she didn’t have to strain her shoulder to keep them up for now.

 

The bard shifted and Miriam tensed until they felt balanced on her broom. When she felt satisfied that Kiwi wasn’t going to off and the guards wouldn’t have to clean them up from the royal garden grounds, she pressed forward to get a better look at the moonlit castle.

 

As far as she could tell, she was behind the palace, which was built atop and through the height of a mountain. She thought through the path she had taken upon entering the palace, trying to figure where the throne room would be in relevance to the dungeon. She pondered for a second, drifting on the nightly breeze to get a better perspective of the castle.

 

Miriam was a bit surprised to see the way the gardens circled the palace. From behind, the mountain was practically a cliff, steep and wherever there was solid ground as ledges, she doubted they were easy to navigate. Yet trees were still growing among them, framing windows and boughs strung with lanterns from them. Some trunks were practically horizontal, and the larger ones snaked around the palace like grand serpents.

 

She wasn’t going to admit it, but maybe the gardens were a bit more impressive than she had just seen from the front.

 

She dismissed the gardens as quickly and she started admiring them and considered the task at hand again.

 

 _I could just make my way through the front door_ , she jested to herself. _I blasted through walls and guards, what would be a few more?_

 

She heard a call from somewhere in the palace, followed by the flickering of torches in windows and birds taking to the air. Miriam flinched and directed a bit more urgency into the broom’s speed. Her eyes scanned the land around them, feeling a bit more exposed than when she first touched the moonlight. She saw homes with lit windows all around the palace, and soon there would be squadrons of guards searching Xiatian for them.

 

Hesitantly, made her way to the closest group of trees that she hoped wasn’t crowded to the point she couldn’t avoid detection from them. She reached back and made sure Kiwi wouldn’t get knocked off as she hid behind the rainbow leaves and prickly twigs.

 

The trees briefly reminded her of Delphi. When she was younger, she had the impression that her hometowns’ trees were the most remarkable in all the land! Despite what books or pictures said otherwise, she thought their colors were unique and irreplaceable.

 

As iridescent red-gold and yellow-green leaves settled on her dress and hair as she navigated the branches for the trunk, she felt a bit of childish annoyance. She let go of her hold on Kiwi for just a moment to furiously shake the leaves out of her hair and returned it just before Kiwi could get bonked in the head again with a branch.

 

 _I’m not giving Rulle the satisfaction of having better_ TREES _than Delphi_. She rolled her eyes at herself, starting to acknowledge how she was looking for any reason to be upset with this kingdom anymore.

 

As a fugitive, she felt she was allowed to.

 

Miriam found the trunk of the tree and brushed the bark with the heels of her boots, the hint of solid ground reassuring her somewhat. She followed the trunk until she found the ledge it and other trees were branching off from. When she was close to the cliff, she could see the damage the way the roots clung onto the mountain, but it didn’t seem to be breaking through the stone or hurting the foundation of the castle. Somehow it looked like the trees had thoughtfully planned out their growth in relevance to the castle.

 

She placed a hand on the cliff, feeling comfortable that she wouldn’t be seen through the leaves in the trees.

 

In the quiet of the night, she strained her ears to listen for some noise other than the distant call of guards searching the city for her and the miscellaneous noises of the city’s nightlife.

 

The gentle sound of a band made her turn to attention. The sound was in the higher palace windows, and she took the risk to fly higher, trying to angle herself to each tree cover she could on the way, letting the music grow louder and louder.

 

At first she was worried she was missing the Overseer song, trying to zip from hiding place to hiding place quickly at the expense of her and Kiwi’s balance. But when she realized there was no singer and there was more of an ambiance to it, a muted orchestra, she decided to take more care.

 

Before she had made it to the window, Kiwi started to adjust themself, causing Miriam to freeze and twist to look at them in a way that nearly rocked the broom and dropped both of them. She growled and tried to hold them still with both her arms, trying to keep her balance twisted around and pointing the broom forward with her knees.

 

“If you decide to wake up now of all times…” she grumbled, trying to get closer to the cliff face to lean on if the bard did decide this was the best time to readjust for their nap. The bard sleepily hummed a melody that was unsettlingly well timed with the distant band’s beat. Miriam sighed at them and muttered, “I really hope you’re worth all this work I put into rescuing you,” as she awkwardly leaned them up to keep them from falling again.

 

“At least one of us is getting their beauty rest,” Miriam added, rubbing her eyes. As she drifted ever closer to the music, she tried remembering when and how much sleep she had gotten last. She was pretty sure it had been at the Lumber Town, having to sleep in a glorified stable fitted with beds filled with hay. She was still trying to pick out straws from her clothes and hair and it felt like her back would never get a rest from all this world saving work.

 

From the angle she was, she was able to see the gentle flickering of lights in the window. The music sounded traditional, unlike anything she had heard outside of Rulle. _Some fantastic festivities for the awesome Hero, I’m sure_.

 

The window ledge jutt out like a makeshift balcony. There was no handrail so it was obviously unintentional, but Miriam took advantage of the accidental architectural detail and landed soundly on the surprisingly strong wood, similar strong mahogany color like the rest of the frames and supports outside the castle.

 

She set the broom down slowly, making sure the bard plopped down silently and safely, out of sight of the window. She peered inside. The room was almost as big and felt almost as open as the throne room, without windows. There were large banquet tables lined up with an assortment of dishes and treats, appetizers and hors d'oeuvres, and even desserts, pastries and cakes stacked much too tall for only the Hero and the King.

 

Miriam’s stomach growled at the mere sight of it, and that was moments until she finally caught the warm smell of all those foods in the air. She broke her hunger induced gaze to search for the King of Rulle.

 

Unfortunately, the side of the table she looked at first belonged to the Hero herself.

 

Audrey sat, completely crooked and inches away from sitting with her boots on the table, the sword beside her and her expression told her she was loving every bit of that wonderful scene she was in. The band (made up of guitars and woodwinds and percussion instruments Miriam couldn’t quite recognize) playing for her, the feast she would NEVER be able to eat wasting in front of her small plate, and her total advantage she thought she had against a witch and a bard, supposedly prisoner levels beneath her. That last one was a projection Miriam put onto her.

 

Miriam ducked out of view before she let her temper get the better of her. She clenched her fists, took a few breaths to settle herself down, and brush the magic from her hands. She was here for a reason. She wasn’t going to mess up getting the song again.

 

Though she didn’t feel like having to see the Hero again.

 

“I can’t help but notice all the, uhh, pets everyone seems to have here in Rulle,” Miriam heard Audrey say. Miriam could tell there had been a terribly quiet lull in the conversation.

 

_Good. She can perform however she wants for a crowd but I’d bet she can’t stand dealing with royal formalities._

 

There was a bit of a rumble and clattering of dishes and Miriam thought of the king’s qin. She wondered if a majority of the feast was intended for him.

 

The king’s voice began to drone, “Pets would be a bit of a… _demeaning_ way of putting it, Hero Miss. Qin are _really_ significant in our culture. Lifelong bonds between animal and people from the moment they’re born.” He sighed. “We don’t get tourists often enough to have a decent condensed explanation for them.”

 

“Hmmm…” Miriam rolled her eyes, despite not caring all that much herself either. “Allergies don’t seem to be a problem then.” There was a brief moment of silence and she spoke up again, “They don’t allow your qins in the kitchen, right?”

 

“I mean… erm...  I assume not?” A few moments passed again, filled with the quiet music from the band. “If you found any… fur or feathers in your food I can send it back.” There was a bit of a murmur, Miriam assumed from the guards. She couldn’t quite catch what any of them said, but it sounded like hushed gossip or concern. When the king said, “Eh, um, or I could find whoever made it and… exile them? Or something? Sense you’re the Hero, something about disrespect?” she could imply why.

 

The sound of a chair scuffing the ground cut through the room much louder than Miriam would have liked. “That won’t be necessary, your Highness!”  
  
“Your Majesty, you mean...-” the King tried correcting before Audrey continued.

 

“I’ve been pampered all over town today just for settling your little monster problem! I think it’s time for my to continue my quest!” Her announcing voice made Miriam’s teeth grind and she almost wanted to tune out altogether.

 

Another chair scuffed the ground, much less dramatically. “Ah, of course. It’s no secret at this point to you, but because of the invasion, we can’t really send you with assistance... I hope you don’t mind. We kind of need to make the best use of all our resources.”

 

“No need, sir!” Miriam thought she heard the _shink_ of that obnoxious blade.

 

 _Is she seriously holding it up. Of all times._ Miriam couldn’t bring herself to find out.

 

“All I need to progress on my journey is the song of your realm’s Overseer! Word around here says you’d know it!”

 

There was a long exhale from the king, and frankly Miriam felt the same way.

 

“I haven’t sung that song in… a really long time, you know. We stopped having our sun festivals since all the monsters and disputes started popping up and… Errugh, don’t give me that look, I remember the song,” the king rambled. “Just give me a second to warm up my voice.”

 

Miriam was thrown EXTREMELY off guard when she heard the noises the king referred to as “warming up” his voice that she couldn’t help but lean to peak her head through the window. Even Audrey looked a bit concerned as the king went from clearing his throat to crying out broken notes and hardly _human_ noises. At a certain point, Miriam saw his lion raise its head and bark along with him. Miriam would almost consider it sweet if she wasn’t unsettled to the core by the king’s voice.

 

With a jolt, Miriam reminded herself to prepare for the Overseer song. She ducked back out of the window and pulled out her piccolo, wiping the mouthpiece from the dust it acquired from multiple escapes she had made that night.

 

She glanced down at the instrument, lining up her fingers and checking her embouchure, adjusting the mouthpiece accordingly and felt a terribly timed sense of nostalgia.

 

As the moon reflected the keys on her flute, she couldn’t help but recall her original plan for saving the world with the old thing that Sapphy had given her. She pressed a few familiar notes and clutched it in a tight hold as she felt those hopes to be the one to save the world wash away from her again. The way she felt when Grandma Sapphy took the responsibility of saving the world from her to Kiwi. The way she felt when she found out about Audrey.

 

She sideeyed the bard. Once she felt so proud of her playing. She could pick up a tune close enough just by ear and Sapphy had always called her such a quick learner and good player growing up! Even if she did have a bit more playing with the destructive magic she grew to love, Miriam thought she could save the world somehow with that flute.

 

The witch shut her eyes tight and took a deep breath, exhaling for a few long seconds. If she wanted to save the world with her playing, now was her chance.

 

She focused on the king again, who was rumbling a few more coughs and directed his qin and the band to quiet down. Miriam leaned forward and tried to peak around the window again.

 

And the King of Rulle began to sing.

 

Miriam was surprised his voice actually held up compared to his vocal warm ups but she couldn’t exactly focus making fun as she held up her piccolo copied the notes on the keys, fingering along carefully with each wavering note from the King’s voice.

 

He sounded almost as if he was singing lyrics, but it was slurred and difficult to understand, rather than clear and crisp as Kiwi’s singing voice was. Miriam to assume it could have been some old language, passed down from generations of royalty in Rulle. And, like he said before, when they still worshiped the Overseer of Sun.

 

The song rose and eventually fell, until the only remains were the echoes on the room’s walls, wavering a bit more than they had in the throne room during Kiwi’s song.

 

“So that’s it?” the King asked after catching his breath. “If you need me to repeat it, I’ll be here until we start prepping for the invasion.”

 

“I’m grateful, your Majesty! I’ll get out of your hair. Before I leave, the temple out in the desert _is_ the temple you used to use for worshipping the Sun, right?”

 

“Mhmm. Before this war started, of course, Chandeesh and Rulle citizens would come together to that Sky Temple. The place is really run down nowadays…. I assumed someone would have maintained it-”

 

Miriam stopped listening soon after, focusing on her flute. She repeated the song a few more times, tapping the keys carefully and fumbling a bit, getting flustered when she mispressed notes. She huffed and decided that the nexus point would have to settle for “good enough.”

 

She carefully put her piccolo away and prepared herself to move Kiwi back on the broom and get ready to fly right to the temple and get out of this kingdom once and for all.

 

Miriam lifted the bard with her broom as quietly as she could, feeling a lot more self conscious of her surroundings than before. She flinched everyt ime she thought she heard the call of a guard from the streets below on the roads of the nicer, higher-classed looking homes, or the echoes of footsteps from the guards investigating the shops and inns out front.

 

She carefully made her way over the ledges as often as she could, feeling much more comfortable with a bit of a safety precaution until she could get used to her companion’s lack of balance.

 

In similar fashion to before, she slunk behind tree cropping to tree cropping, avoiding each open window as best she could unless she could see obviously shut shutters.

 

With each treacherous inch she progressed she swore over Rulle, her own fatigue, and the entire day she had gone through. More than a few times on this trip, Miriam had considered how she would sum everything up for her grandma, who she knew would be itching to hear about everything they did.

 

 _As fun as this all is, being a fugitive and all! -_ Miriam flinched as rocks crumbled beneath her broom - _Maybe… we can skip out on the part where we became wanted in an entire kingdom._

 

She made her way around the palace until she got to the thick of the castle gardens, where the ground thickened and Miriam could brush the ground with a heel and not have to worry about a dreadful impact with the ground. As the mountainous cliff face became more of hill, like in front of the palace, she took a moment to breath, hiding within most obscured from view cropping of branches and bushes. She remained on her broom, but tried to straighten her back, feeling painful cracks, making her consider all the slouching she had been doing recently. She rolled her shoulders and eventually drifted down to the ground to stretch her legs, before they had to return to the air one more time for the night.  

 

She set the bard gently down once again, leaned against a tree, along with her broom. She paced around as quietly as possible, even though the fallen leaves of the trees that once helped her now teased with the idea of giving them away.

 

 _The guards won’t look here_ , she assured herself. _It’d be terribly stupid of the prisoners to hide so close to the palace!_ She shrugged to herself.

 

_Their expectations for us are way too high._

 

A soft tinkling of bells stole Miriam’s attention and she flinched towards her broom. _I didn’t see any windchimes around here earlier…_ her mind tried reasoning. _And it isn’t even windy…?_

 

“Aaaaah nice!!! Told ya that song would be easy to nab, Audrey!” Miriam couldn’t quite place whose otherworldly voice it belonged to but something else made her much more concerned than the fact she didn’t recognize it. She navigated through the leaves and squat down, looking up at an angle to see the Hero, as expected, along with that rainbow haired girl ( _from outside of Rulle, who Kiwi knows?_ ) floating a length above the ground.

 

Audrey adjusted her scarf as it waved majestically in the nonexistent wind. “Yeah, could have done without all that gawking, though. It feels nice to be appreciated, I’ve certainly gotten a lot more respect I deserve from this place than from other places but,” she shrugged. “What can you do? Not everywhere’s gonna get attacked by monsters.”

 

“Hehe.” The girl’s voice echoed and as Audrey walked down the path, her floating in tow, Miriam was almost sure she heard bells. “Yeah, the King just wanted to show his gratefulness and all that, gurl! He totally thinks you saved his life.”

 

“I could have sworn half that food smelled like wet dog, though… Wait, he thinks what?” Audrey stopped for a second and rested her sword on her shoulder. “The King was nowhere near the wall when monsters started barging in.”

 

Miriam furrowed her brows. _There’s no way she forgot about our fight…_ she felt a charge in her hands begin to load before she found a fallen branch and started picking and scraping at the bark with her nails, resisting the urge to throw herself in front of them and try to give her a better fight she _wouldn’t_ forget.

 

“Ummm, that whole sitch with the bard and the witch? －Hehe, that rhymed. － He totally thought that witchy girl was trying to blow up his whole expensive deal, didn’t you see his face?” she started giggling and trailed off when Audrey didn’t humor her.

 

Audrey squinted and opened her mouth with an obnoxiously dragged out “ooooh” that nearly made Miriam snap the branch in her hands in half. “Heh, that was funny to see her bumbling around like an idiot.”

 

“Mmmyeah,” the girl responded. “Shame that cute li’l pair got locked up for it!” She shrugged. “I guess its good for you, though, now that they’re outta your hair!”

 

The Hero put her sword down and glanced at the path winding back down to the main street. “So the nexus point is that temple down in the desert in that’s shambles, right?”

 

The girl didn’t respond for a second but after a moment she hesitantly replied, “Y-yep! Just like the King said! Didja hear what I said about－”

 

“Great! We can get there by sundown tomorrow, I’m sure,” Audrey said, puffing out her chest before starting her trek back down the path.

 

“You’re not fast traveling?” the rainbow girl asked, staying in place as the Hero went out of Miriam’s view.

 

Audrey turned and called, “Nah! Wanted to check out the desert and see if there’s any loot!” There was a reflection of her blade through the leaves as she gestured. “There’s, like, tons of stuff out there people could have dropped! I’ll _tell you_ when I plan on appearing all over the place and skipping all that good stuff.”

 

“Hmmm, alright. Whatevs!” She weakly held up a peace sign. “Hit me up when ya need me.” With a image of a wavering heart, the rainbow girl faded into the air and Audrey’s bootsteps became as inaudible as the search parties.

 

Miriam sat back, staring at the empty space that Audrey once was and stood back up with her bare branch. With a quick motion she snapped the branch over her knee and tossed the pieces back in the bushes, ignoring the clattering noises that could give her away. She growled as she picked her hands to get rid of the remaining pieces of bark and she could only hope she didn’t get a splinter.

 

She _hated_ Audrey with every fiber of her being already, but the fact that Audrey hadn’t even given them any thought…. She started spiting herself a little bit for thinking of Audrey so much because of it. _She clearly isn’t as eaten up about our skirmishes as I am._ And that made Miriam fume.

 

She questioned the point of her adventure even being on this journey and Audrey couldn’t even think about the ones who had gone through twice as much effort as her!

 

 _In the eyes of the universe, of Eya herself, I AM in the wrong,_ Miriam realized, picking up the broom and picking up Kiwi much less gently than she had before.

 

 _I’m not supposed to be doing ANY of this. I should be enjoying my last days alive with Sapphy._ She kicked herself into the air, grunting through the leaves and twigs crunching into her clothes. _None of this effort is my responsibility._

 

She held Kiwi up until they had leaned on her in a way that Miriam trusted they wouldn’t fall over if she let go. Her eyes scanned the ground as she saw torches and spears, feathers and fur, antlers and armor, looking for _her_ and the bard that disrespected the King. But she knew she was much too far away for them to get their grubby hands on them to throw them back in the destroyed dungeons.

 

“But I’m still doing all of this anyway,” Miriam continued aloud.

 

She held onto her broomstick, clutching it with aching hands, and growled, “Regardless of how much this world does _not_ deserve to be saved… I still want to.”

 

She glanced back without turning her head (not wanting to shift and have to hold up Kiwi again).

 

“Wish I knew how you did it,” she said in a more quiet voice, the lights of Rulle only distant specks in the dark desert before her. “You just keep believing and helping and trying and,” she sighed and rolled her eyes. “Not everyone deserves it.”

 

For a while she flew in silence. Miriam knew they wouldn’t get to the Sky Temple for a good while. She adjusted her seat and took a deep breath, left alone with her thoughts and foggy head.

 

She spoke up for a second, thinking aloud again, “One day I’ll tell Grandma Sapphy about this. I just don’t want her impression of her grand daughter who saved the world as a hero who federal crimes! Unlike someone, I’m sure.”

 

The end of the night provided another sense of nostalgia, from only a few days ago. Where Kiwi would lean against her to sleep as she got them from country to country through late nights and worrying weather.

 

She got used to it, she had grown to look forward to the points of time where Kiwi would finally shut up for a few hours and stop being so joyful, and Miriam got time to focus and think.

 

The sun peeked out of the other side of Miriam’s view. The purple sky she had appreciated the company of started to bleed orange and pink as the sun leaked its light and started tucking away the stars.

 

At this point… Miriam didn’t want to be left alone with her thoughts anymore.

 

Kiwi started to adjust and Miriam jerked, extending an arm to hold up her companion. They stumbled in the air for a moment before Miriam rebalanced and she breathed a sigh of relief.

 

The sun began to rise in the corner of Miriam’s eye and she decided to pace herself. She glanced at the fuzzy image of the desert ground as the heat started making the air waver like a dream landscape. She felt a bit better as sun started warming her up.

 

 _I’m not alone_ , she told herself sternly. _Kiwi’s gotta wake up any minute, and even if they don’t, I’ll go right to the spirit world and get the Earthsong anyway._

 

She tapped the broomstick with a fingernail thoughtfully, deciding to plan ahead. _Chandeesh should be next…. The otherwise of the war._ She shook that last thought off quickly and reminded herself that everyone was talking about the witches from Chandeesh.

 

 _They can’t actually be that bad… Grandma never said anything about a war there._ She glanced far ahead, squinting. She thought maybe she’d be able to see a distant kingdom full of people like her.

 

 _Don’t get your hopes up, Miriam_ , she told herself. She glanced back at Kiwi again, an image in their mind of them excitedly considering everything they’d see in that kingdom. Probably asking her if she knew anything about it because _“You’re a witch too, aren’t you!?”_

 

She smirked and rolled her eyes again. _Maybe. Maybe we’re finally going to get that break._

 

 _Just have to hold out for a little while longer._  
  


**Author's Note:**

> this is the first fanfic ive finished in,, honestly a really long time. im glad wandersong got me to finish something for once :3c!! 
> 
> i haven't written anything in a long while so im totally open to criticism! i had fun making this though and i hope this is just the first of many fanfics i write for this game,,,, (i already have a few prompts i started writing and dropped pensive emojie,, maybe ill look back at them now that im finished with this, though!!)
> 
> thank you very much for reading! <3


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